poppy's 3rd birthday party

Aloha - it's about time I got around to posting Poppy's 3rd birthday party, it was only eight months ago! I'm not sure where the time goes but it sure goes fast. As you can probably gather from the above photos, we went with a Hawaiian theme - the party was in August so we felt pretty confident that we would have sunshine! As always, my good friend Denise made the cake - this time she did fondant (which non of the kids liked)...Denise always backs it up with cupcakes, so we were covered. My husband carved the watermelon (love it) and the cookies are from Whisk...the hula girls are too cute!

This was probably the easiest party to plan, it's colourful and fun. The food was pretty simple, we ordered sushi, prepared chicken skewers the night before and sprinkled the table with lots of sweet treats. All of the decorations, including the balloons are from The Party Bazaar. All of the Hawaiian birthday photos are by Joy Chen.

For Poppy's first birthday we invited the babies we knew that were born in her first year...we took a photo and have taken the same photo each year. They're getting tough to wrangle!

This is Poppy's first birthday....

Poppy's second birthday...

And Poppy's third birthday...

We had a great time, looking at these photos now reminds me how special the day was and how excited Poppy was to be turning three. They also make me long for summer again! Aloha.

poppy's 2nd birthday party

A week after Beckett's dinosaur bash we went toadstool crazy & brought out the gnomes. Poppy loves gnomes and I love that she loves them. I mentioned in Beckett's birthday party post that I would lay in bed while recovering last January and dream on my kid's birthday party themes. Poppy's was easy, she loves gnomes...it then became a challenge for me to come up with different ways to decorate.

Once again the cookies were made by Sonia at Sweet Sugary Things. My incredibly creative mom made the toadstools on the table and gnome hats for everyone...the dahlias were picked from her garden that morning. Beckett enjoyed playing his birthday gift for everyone. I bought Poppy's sweet dress from The Cross months before her birthday, I saw it & knew it would be perfect on her. The little edible toadstools are cheese & cherry tomatoes with cream cheese dots. Dave painted eight brown stools & transformed them into little toadstools for the backyard.

I can't begin to express how much I love the cake. My friend Denise was the mastermind behind this sweet, little gnome cake. You can see Denise watching me pipe...she is so much fun to dream up a party with. I was given the gnome on the cake by a friend years ago and I ordered the toadstools on Etsy.

It was was so good...barely a crumb was left. With Beckett & Zoë nearby, Poppy didn't stand a chance blowing out her candles. Once again my friend Mika was there to take photos of the party.

This photo kind of says it all.....

As you can see, getting a family shot is a challenge. We eventually gave up.

It was a good time. A gnome garden party is a fun theme, the possibilities are endless. One more party to post...and then I'll start dreaming of next year's parties.

oh where does a year go?

Poppy 5 weeks old.  photo by ka davidson

It's amazing how fast a year goes by and what a wonderful year it has been. My sweet Poppy just turned one. When she was born she had jet black hair & olive skin, we were positive that she was going to take after my husband's Japanese ancestors. Not to be, Poppy has porcelain skin, blue eyes and light brown hair. It's incredible how much she has changed and grown in such a short amount of time.

Poppy 11 months old.  photo by kyrani kanavaros

Poppy is sweet.  She is kind, calm and incredibly loving. I'm so happy that she loves to cuddle, Poppy has spent countless hours in my arms and I have loved every single second. Now she is one, crawling, standing and ready to start taking her first steps.

Poppy 12 months.  photo by ka davidson

I can't wait to find out who this girl is. Will she be feisty & outgoing like her sister or quiet and thoughtful like her brother? Maybe she will be completely different....it's so much fun to discover bits of who she is each day.  Happy Birthday Poppy. xx

tv week video

When we did the photo shoot for TV Week a couple of sweet girls from the magazine came over and shot some video, I just watched it for the first time tonight.  I think they did a great job!